What next??

Being a fireman's wife, means having a lot of time alone. I use some of the time alone, to well, let's say do home improvement projects!!
This one summer, I got this wonderful idea (while he was gone) to paint our bedroom. Now, let's set something straight..... I am by no means a professional painter. So if I was going to act on this thought, I must get it done before he gets home. I have to hurry!!!! So I pushed all of the furniture to the center of the room. I could hardly move the bed, but with my mighty woman strength, I got it far enough away from the wall. Boy, what a workout!! I went to the paint store, bought brushes, rollers, tape & drop cloth. That leaves....well... the Paint. I chose a color that looks great on the color swatch. I picked this color that was called "leaf green". Yea, well when I painted one wall, it was obvious that this looked more like celery green. I stopped my painting immediately. My husband would have a heart attack if he came home to this. Now what......"get some different paint." This time I chose this ROSE/MAROON color. Now that should be romantic, right??? I drove home, opened the paint and began to paint like a mad woman. I kept thinking okay, this should get darker at some point. Did I forget to tell you that this week I chose to paint, turned out to be the hottest week in July, in Southern California. With the indoor temp in our bedroom reaching the high 90s (we don't have central AC), I was sweating buckets. I kept thinking, "just keep working fast so I can get out of here." Finally 6 days later, the room was painted, pictures rehung, and the furniture moved back into place. As I laid in bed each night before he came home, I kept thinking "hmm... I think it looks romantic??" When hubby got home, he was shocked. However, after hearing about the traumatic painting experience he only could agree that it looked nice. Well a few months later, we both agreed that rather than the romantic rose color, it resembled a shade of Pept-o-Bismol pink. Note to self.....the paint on the swatches are not the color it will be on the walls. It caused more of an upset stomach, rather than a romantic moods. So we both chose a color, called evergreen green, and the room looks very relaxing, romantic and peaceful. It's funny because it almost reminds me of the forest tree green. I guess having our bedroom painted that color, makes him feel better when sleeping in the forest on fire assignments.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of my home improvement days.

Our bathroom desperately needed a makeover, so I decided to do it. The only small problem is, it was day 10 of a 14 day assignment. This called for speedy work. I chose the paints, bought some accessories and began taping off all the areas not to paint. So I set many fans in the bathroom, and pulled my hair into a pony-tail. I began painting, when the phone rang. It was my dad!! I used my sweet, innocent daughter voice, and recruited my dad to come help me. So now this little bathroom make-over involved painting, spackling the ceiling, laying laminent floor and hanging new towel racks!! My dad is great. After a hard day's work, dad would head home and I'd be painting, still. Later that night when the phone rang, it was my husband. "What are you doing" he asked. I couldn't tell him the truth, so I said, "Oh just cleaning the closet out and folding clothes." The best thing is he believed me!! Could I really pull this make-over off? I tried not to give any clues? I told him my dad was over during the day, to play a game of football with me on the Play station. I tried to keep my voice as normal as I could, while I inhaled paint fumes. Dad would greet me each day and say "when is he coming home?" As I looked at the bathroom and saw the amount of work we had left, I hung my head and said "tomorrow." That's right, I felt like one of those home make-over shows, that pull it all together as the husband pulls in the driveway. But my wonderful dad, kept my spirits high. He said, "well let's get to work." We finished all the painting, hung the bathroom towel racks, laid the floor laminent, put the toilet back in place, and stood back. We had finished in time for me to clean up and wait for my hubby to pull in the driveway. I'm not joking, but my dad packed his tools in his truck and left 20 minutes before hubby pulled in the driveway. Talk about close calls........ I greeted him at the door, as usual; with a big hug & kiss. He came in, sat down and we began chatting about the assignment as he took his boots off. "Well, I'll be right back, I have to go to the bathroom" as he stood up and headed down the hall. AGGHH what was I supposed to say?? "WAIT, I forgot to tell you...you know that show While You Were Out?" His eyes nearly popped out of his head. "What did you do now" was all he could say. I felt like Lucille Ball, when Ricky says "LUCY" when he's getting frustrated with her. So I put my arms around his neck, nestled in close to him and said, "Well my dad helped me redo the bathroom." As he opened the door and looked at my work, his words were something like "Oh my goodness, this is great." I had decorated it in a theme that means a lot to us. A country western/Wyatt Earp theme. He really was happy. He hugged me and kissed me and said "thank you."

He tells everyone he's afraid to go on fires because there are still 3.5 rooms that are possible areas of "home improvements." He has nicknamed me Lucy, because of all the crazy things I do and because my hair is a reddish color. So I need to find Ethel to help me do the dining room, next. Ethel, where are you????